Fragmented Child
by Asterot Tezcoatl
Summary: Naruto has suffered his death but where will he end up and what will he become? What if he really does go to a hellish place after death, not for his own misdeeds but because it was fate that brought him there. As he is given one more chance, will he move foreward or back but then again... why can't it be both? BleachxNarutoxHarryPotter. Character Death. Feels. Lemon? T until sex.
1. Death and Rebirth

A/N: I do not own either of these works... unfortunately.

**WARNING. FEELS AHEAD.**

**THEE HATH BEEN SUFFICIENTLY WARNED. PROCEED.**

Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha on this day of celebration with only anguish in his heart. To everybody in the village, this was the day that the Kyuubi had been sealed into a helpless baby boy, putting an end to all of the deaths that had been added to the ever growing toll.

He watched as children who were too young to remember what happened ran about playing tag as their parents watched and whispered words of hate and distain about the 'demon child' to each other. None of them whispered quietly and it stopped when they thought he had been out of hearing range.

Naruto took all of these whispers and thrown objects in stride with a grin on his face. He said hi to his friends as he passed and they paused for a moment to wave back and carry on with their day. He made it all the way to his house where he opened the door and walked in. His window was already broken and his bed torn to shreds.

Suddenly the blond ball of sunshine disappeared and became a black hole of emptiness, all of his light and hope and determination and happiness; all of it gone and sucked into this black hole of despair. His eyes lost their shine and his mouth was set in a grimace as his tears silently overflowed.

The whispered words from earlier now came back to haunt him. It felt like they were being screamed in his head, each insult another chip at his mask. He was no longer a naïve child who could pretend it was nothing to worry about. Every day of every year was agonizing. When he was gone on missions, he was on a team that didn't even want him there, let alone respect him and when he came back to Konoha, he was destroyed by their words. No matter what he did or who he told, everyone turned their backs on him because he was just a kid and was probably over reacting.

Eventually Naruto stopped trying to get help, even when there were people who came into his life that seemed to genuinely care for him. He didn't want to feel the betrayal when they finally came to abandon a forsaken child just like everyone else.

Naruto sat drowning in his fears and self-hatred. His breath came in quick gasps but he felt like it wasn't enough. He was drowning in his thoughts and they were filling the air with a miasma that suffocated him with every inhale. These thoughts were toxic and he could feel himself trembling as his arms wrapped around himself just so that he might keep the pieces that made up 'Naruto' together to survive another day but every day he came home and felt as if that was the day. That was the day he would finally give in.

He stayed in that position for a while before he saw that night was falling. He could feel the last warmth of the day leave him. He felt a sudden need to live invigorate him to move. This was always the time the villagers came for him. Naruto swore as a child and vowed never to break this promise that he would never lay his hand on a villager.

He loved Konoha and he loved his friends but it was just a fickle love. A fake love. A mirage that he made himself believe was real. He knew that as long as he hated himself, there was no one in the world that would want a monsters love, so he had trapped it. He hid it in the depths of a broken soul and turned out the lights, shrouding it in a darkness that never relented. He saved everyone the disgust of having to deal with a monsters love.

He crawled to his bathroom and shut the door, trembling as he crawled into the cabinet under the sink. He whimpered when he heard the distinct noise of someone kicking his door down. He tried to steady his breath but it sped up with the pace of his heart in fear. He closed his eyes and whimpered when he heard the crash of the bathroom door opening and the shattering of glass. He suddenly felt a gust of wind and opened his eyes only to stare into those of a man.

"Found ya." He said, grinning like the cat who caught the canary which was an accurate description of what was happening.

The man reached in and grabbed Naruto's hair, dragging him out by his blond locks. He yelped but didn't plead for him to let go because experience told him the man would do no such thing, especially on the 'monsters' behalf.

The tall brute of a man threw him in the middle of the floor as men and women surrounded him.

A woman spoke up. "Your filth has tainted our air and our children and we have kindly let you live until now but I will no longer have my children live in fear of a demon brat that haunts their dreams. You are a contagion that has been around eighteen years too long and we are this village's cure. You will die tonight or live an eternity of agony and loneliness, either way, this village is no longer yours to cherish!"

The men rallied behind the words of this woman and began beating Naruto, not with clubs or knives or bats or sticks but with his own possessions. Broken bits of his bed, pipes, drawers, pans, handles, anything and everything. Picture frames, beloved books, His own shoes. He was beat until he was bloody and he felt bones break underfoot. He screamed only when his bones broke and ribs cracked. Much more obscene and disgusting things were practiced on his body by men long into the night.

When morning came, Naruto lie in a puddle of blood, semen, piss, and vomit. His mangled limbs stuck out in painful looking directions and everything but his face was black and blue. His face just had three cuts on each cheek where his whisker marks were. His eyes were open and leaking tears but that was all there was no sound that came from this child.

He was afraid. He could feel it. Kurama wasn't helping this time. He couldn't feel the warm chakra that soothed him after the night of his birthday every year but he knew it was because he deserved it.

**"No child. Not because you deserve this. But because you deserve better. I'm hoping that death will treat you kinder than the devils that linger here."**

He heard Kurama whisper words of kindness in his ear and his face folded into one of pain and loneliness. He knew Kurama was fond of him but it still felt like he was being betrayed. He had no choice but to die because his only friend wouldn't help him. There was nothing Naruto could say to change the fact that he would die a humiliating death.

Naruto soon hear a commotion at his door and the laughter of a couple of his friends, probably over to wish him a belated birthday after coming home from their mission and then he smiled with an empty look on his face when he heard a scream of horror and yells of his name. He let out his own pained scream when a set of arms picked up his mangled body. He writhed and it looked horrifying with his limp broken limbs swinging freely as he screamed to make the pain stop.

He howled with physical pain and pain of the soul and every ninja who heard it shivered in horror. It was the sound of death greeting a comrade, of suffering in the deepest sense of the word. The felt the injustice of their friend and bowed their heads slightly in acknowledgment before they went on their way.

Naruto was transported to the medical bay and the Hokage was informed by her secretary about what happened. She dropped her sake and it shattered but no one was there to hear it since she was gone before it hit the ground. She showed up in the medic bay and gasped at what she saw. She had come to love the boy on the bed like her own dysfunctional little brother and what she saw now broke her heart.

She began yelling out instructions to the hesitant nurses and soon there was a flurry of movement in the room. She let the green glow engulf her hands as she dipped them inside his body to check his vital signs. Nothing looked good. She cried while doing what she could but at this point with all of these injuries and his lungs being punctured, she could only give him a couple more days to live since the foxes healing wasn't helping him this time.

"I'm sorry Naruto… I'm so… so sorry…" She repeated those words over and over as she put chakra stoppers on his most fatal wounds. She was going to at least going to give him enough time to say goodbye. She owed him that much. She stayed by his side for over six hours and when she collapsed from exhaustion, she was replaced by the wards most competent nurse. She was recharged in about an hour with chakra pills and food and was right back on the job. She spent another four hours on him and pulled away when she was done.

She woke the boy up around noon the following day and smiled at the bright blue eyes, her own filling with tears when she saw how dull and lifeless they were even before he had passed on.

"What… what am I doing alive?"

The question almost broke her heart when she hear that he knew he was going to die. She brushed his hair away from his face and smiled, though it was watery and not quite happy like a real smile was supposed to be.

"Well you're not very far off kid. You'll be leaving us for good soon. I just…. I just wanted everyone to be able to say goodbye." She whispered the last part as tears started pouring from her eyes, even when she closed them, her expression a mask of pain and loss and somewhere in his head, Naruto realized that this is what he must look like when he came home every night. He was glad no one ever saw it because it broke him a bit more when he saw it painted on his big sisters face. He was surprised when she gently wrapped her arms around him and pressed his face into her shoulder.

"How could I have let this happen… You were my precious person and now all I can give you is time to say goodbye. It hurts, Naruto. I feel like I'm talking to a ghost and I don't want to lose you. I don't want to watch you die but it's the only thing I can do now." She sobbed into his shoulder and watched as Shizune left the room and came back in.

What hurt the most right now was not any of his injuries but the fact that he couldn't move his broken arms to wrap them around her.

"I know. I loved you…" He whispered in her ear as she cried and hugged him as tight as she dared.

They were interrupted Shizune coming back into the room with a solemn look on her face.

"They're here. All of them."

Tsunade nodded and kissed Naruto on the forehead where his hetaite would usually be before pulling away, feeling as if something was being ripped from her the moment she stopped touching her beloved little brother.

She headed out to the hall that held a sufficient amount of shinobi, all connected to Naruto. Garaa had been in town with Temari but unfortunately Kankuro was absent from this marry band of kids. None of them knew why they were gathered but they did know it was about Naruto. Many of them were having thoughts along the lines of 'Naruto gets injured all the time so why are we here? Did he get himself in trouble?' but one ninja was the only one who was trying not to think about what this meant since he almost certainly knew now that they were all gathered here.

"Shinobi. Soldiers. Brothers. Sisters. Daughters. Sons. Friends of Naruto. I chose you because I know the depth in which you care for this boy." She was earning a few confused glances and worried looks, not knowing where this was going.

"I know it is heartless of me to choose for him but I don't want him to hear words of hate. Especially now." She held fast and tried to hide it but her eyes were watering.

"Tsunade… what-" Kakashi was silenced when Tsunade shook her head.

"What you see in there… I want you to burn it in your minds. I want you to remember every word he says. No matter what." She had tears sliding down her cheeks once again as she spoke the last words to prepare them. "This will be the last you'll see of him… These will be the last words he says… Because he won't live to see tomorrow." She finished, seeing all of their hearts break in front of her eyes.

She will tell them how he died when he is gone and can't beg her not to because she knew she would never do it if he asked.

Tsunade watched as her soldiers that had endured battle and loss cried for their friend. She knew how much it hurt. It felt as if they had already lost him and they were going in to meet his corpse. She saw even Sasuke cry for his friend.

She knew how much he meant to him. They were brothers in all but blood and he had been the one to make him see the light. He had given Sasuke something to live for. Something to love for and it was slipping away as he stood there.

Garaa didn't cry. He knew what wretched things were done to him from experience and it pained him to admit it but he knew it was only a matter of time.

The rest cried for happy memories that would be the only thing they had of him after this and it made her smile to know that despite it all, he was loved in the end.

She saw Kakashi and knew he was blaming himself but he was not alone. She looked over the crowd of young faces to those that were older and withered to see silent tears and looks of deep sorrow across the board as well as guilt. All of his teachers and friends looked up at Tsunade one by one and nodded when every one of them lifted their chin. She led them in silently to the room that held their friend.

As they walked in one by one, Naruto could tell their thoughts. He looked to each of their faces and was sad to say that he saw exactly what he had expected. Not that he was disappointed at anyone but himself for it. He had imagined this scene so many times but usually it was over his grave since he didn't ever think he would be able to say good bye like this.

He looked at each of them and smiled. He was weak and his life force was fading little by little so he had to make this quick.

"Hey guys." He smiled at them even though it hurt from where the people cut his face.

He took a deep breath and let his face crumple into sorrow and loss. "I know this isn't fair but I don't want you to say anything. You guys are all I had. I wish I lived more. I wish I truly loved more. You all did such a good job… putting up with a monster like me." He shook his head when he saw some people opening their mouths to say something.

"No. Listen." He could feel himself being pulled softly into an eternal slumber.

"I have one thing left to say before I go." He said, his expression slowly changing to that of the highest gratitude. "Thank you. All of you. Even if you hate me… please… don't forget me." He said, his sight starting to go. Before his hearing left him, he heard his brother's voice and felt the others hand on his.

"Good bye Naruto. My brother."

Naruto had just enough strength to shed one final tear for his brother before he was gone.

Everyone stared at the dead eyes of their friend and took a moment to realize that he was gone before they broke down, each in their own way. They all supported one another and Sasuke was the one that finally shut his eyes and wiped away the tear that he shed just for him. He howled and yelled in sadness and he felt a physical pain where his heart was. He clutched his chest as he sobbed and leaned into the warm arms that encircled him. He stayed like that with Tsunade for a while before they all departed and mourned in their own way.

The funeral was a few days later which more people were invited to but it was still a hand full of extra people that made the cut.

The shinobi were informed how Naruto died and there was rage like none Tsunade had seen before on all of their faces but there was an overwhelming injustice at the humiliation that Naruto received in death. They dealt with the information different ways. Some better than others but it was still dealing.

They were all just looking forward to the day that their little ball of light's death wouldn't hurt so much but all they could do was hope and never forget their most heroic friend.

Naruto awoke in a desert. He looked down at himself and found that he was not himself. He was all white and a fox. He found that he was suddenly surrounded by five other creatures and realized that this must be hell.

"Lookie what we have here. This one's a whammy."

These creatures went on talking for a minute and all of a sudden they were dead. Naruto had killed them. He looked down at the dead bodies of these creatures and felt an immense hunger take hold. He ate them with gusto but didn't feel the hunger subside. He would soon find that it wouldn't. Not for a very long while.

He ate and he ate and he ate becoming stronger with each soul. He only ate the evil souls, never the lonely ones. He knew they were like him. Not here by choice. He saw himself change over the years that passed like centuries in Hueco Mundo, but like days back in his world. He spent what felt like five hundred years in the hell hole of a desert but with age came the power. He walked like a human and looked like a human. He could talk and think and strategize.

His appearance had changed and so did his mind. Sure he was a monster but he was no better or worse than the devils that roamed the land.

Naruto had become powerful and trained himself by trying to feel out how his new power worked. It was complicated and fruitless at first but the more he fought people with higher spiritual pressure, the more he was able to get the hang of it. He spent hours and maybe days sitting on his own and meditating not that he could tell the difference since it was always night. He needed to see something within himself. He didn't know what he was searching for but he knew that he was missing something. He had a hole where his heart was and he knew it meant something.

He had spent centuries in this hell hole and eaten millions of creatures but each of them had a different place for their hole because every single one of them had a hole. He didn't know why he was there and he had forgotten all but the more wretched memories of his past life. If he meditated long enough, sometimes he could see memories.

One moment in time caught Naruto walking through the desert, his cold ice blue eyes almost gone blind just to save him from seeing the same scenery as well as his insanity that was sure to come. His long blonde hair was blowing in that invisible wind that always carried whispers in the everlasting night. Suddenly he felt a hole open in front of him. After all of these years, something finally changed. There was a shift. He couldn't feel hope though there was a mild curiosity as to what caused it. He reached out and felt his hand go through a barrier and come out the other side. He had no idea what he was but he felt like this was a step towards finding it.

He stepped through the hole and saw brightness. He couldn't see much other than color at this point but he didn't realize how much of his sight he had lost until he could see what he was missing. He no longer saw definition, just shapes and colors and he felt like he had lost another part of himself again. He sighed and attempted to look around but knew better. He closed his eyes and felt more clearly with his senses he had gained, allowing him to see more than a normal human eye could ever see. He could see houses miles away and figured he wouldn't be disturbed for a while.

He sat in this lonely place under the sun and meditated once again, this time not to find himself, but to align his sights. He spent hours and days visualizing the lines that made up objects and putting the colors inside them. He felt as if he were playing a game but when he reopened his eyes, he was pleased to see that his eyes were better than they had ever been before, his senses providing him the illusion of a second sight.

He took a step and another, slowly and deliberately walking to a place which he had no notion as to what awaited him there.

A/N:

Ok so I know I am already writting another story but this one just kept bugging me. I hope you guys like it I know it is quite feelsy so sorry if thats not your thing.

I do love feedback so let me know if you have questions or if you liked or disliked a certain part. I will probably work on this more than my other one but it all depends on how my inspiration flows. Let me know if you've got any ideas! This fanfiction is wide open and I will credit you if you influence my work. Plus cookies. :)

I'll be out with a second chapter soon!

-Astarot


	2. Questions

**A/N: I DO NOT OWN. I thought I did but it turned out it was gas... **

**Enjoy! (Also. I kind of gave up on divider lines for perspectives it doesn't change very often. I have faith in you my lollipops!~)**

Naruto had found himself a generic cloth that he was able to wrap around himself as he wandered through the town of people. Houses were everywhere but they were far from normal, made of all kinds of materials and he wondered where all of it came from, his only memories that were relevant to him now being that of a never ending desert.

He had been wandering around for a couple of days in this colorful and happy place. No one knew he was different. Naruto played with the kids that ran around all day though he had not worn a smile on his face in such a long time. He only smiled when he went in for the kill in the desert and that was only because they were pitiable beings that needed to be put down.

He had felt like he was starting to belong but he needed to move. This pattern went on for a little while until he reached a set of walls. He touched these walls and looked at them with wonder. He could feel it. There was power beyond these walls. There might even be someone with the power to tell him who he was.

He reached back and tied his hair before wandering back to the current town he was in and patted the children on the head. He was staying with a bunch of orphans since he still had the body of an eighteen year old at the moment.

Naruto fell asleep under the blanket of calm that filled the air but was violently awoken from his slumber by shouts outside. There were people. People who looked regal in form with black uniforms and swords of varying sizes and origins strapped in a multitude of different ways to each person. Naruto watched them from a window and listened to them.

"Ok so- Ichigo! Are you even listening?!" Came a shrill female voice.

"Yeah. Jeez! Calm down!"

The smaller girl rolled her eyes. "There has been an immense spirit that has been wandering the Serete since about a month ago and this is the first time it has ever come so close. It's our job to get it and bring it back."

"Yeah, yeah whatever. Why do we need it anyways? It's not doing any harm. What if it's like I was when I was still alive?" The boy that had strawberry blond hair said, previously identified as Ichigo.

"Orders are orders."

"Orders are what almost sent you to the end of your existence so don't you give me that."

The smaller girl frown and turned to look around before looking this Ichigo with a smolderingly serious expression.

"I don't know if you can feel it but this presence isn't just another powerful soul. There's something missing. But for some reason it also feels like there's something extra and it infuriates me. I honestly wish Urahara were here so he might make some sense of all this. Right now, we need to treat it as an enemy."

Ichigo adjusted his sword and sighed. "I don't see why… we won our war. Don't we deserve a break?"

Naruto was listening still but his mind had wandered elsewhere. He remembered rivers of blood painting the land. There were mountains moved and valleys made in battles full of flashing colors, the memories of even the most horrid things becoming fuzzy now. He could remember the screams and sights of wounded that were beyond repair fill his memory but he was broken from his reminiscing when Ichigo and the small girl had slipped into silence.

Naruto peaked out of his little space by the window and saw them looking at the house. Naruto didn't become worried until it looked like these people were going to attack the little orphanage of children.

Naruto sighed and tucked his hands into the sleeves of his kimono before walking out of the small hut of a house.

"And just what do you think you are going to do to this house?"

Naruto gave them a scolding look, his own appearance akin to a school teacher or someone who dealt with children on a daily basis. He had the look for it, his posture and tone properly reprimanding.

"Well there was-" Ichigo was interrupted by Naruto intensifying his stern look.

"I don't care if there was a dragon in there. Who are you to take innocent lives, no matter how young or old?"

Ichigo and the Rukia looked at each other not sure if they should put their swords that they had drawn down or fight. The fighting option was becoming less and less favorable as they thought about it. Suddenly another man approached the two and drew his sword against Naruto.

A look of surprise and realization dawned on the girls face when the other man came and suddenly she looked at Naruto with a more confident gaze.

"It was you." She said and suddenly the confusion on Ichigo's face melted away. Ichigo still wasn't sure whether he wanted to raise a hand against this boy that looked a bit younger than him but felt like he had lived a hundred lives.

"Ichigo. That is your name." Naruto stated, not looking for an answer. He walked up to Ichigo who looked to the girl and the new red haired man who had come earlier. Before he could get to close, Naruto was blocked by a sword.

"Watch yourself."

Naruto eyed the sword that lay flat against his chest. His hand raised and touched Ichigo's that still held his sword.

"I do not intend to hurt you or your friends. Please. I just want to find out." He said, a slightly pained expression on his face.

"Find out what?" He asked quietly as if the silence around them was fragile and tangible.

Naruto looked down and put a hand over the hole where his heart would have been. "I need to find out what I am." He opened his kimono type covering to reveal it but a moment later he realized that it was the wrong thing to do. He had a sword to each side of his throat just under his ears.

Naruto was at a cross roads. On one hand, he could fight his way out and run away which was what his instincts were telling him to do but on the other he wanted to know what he was. He was a child in this moment, unsure. He had never had to make allies in this existence before. Everyone had been an enemy in the desert but it was different now. He decided that the most prudent thing to do at the moment would be to let them know he had no intentions of attacking them.

Naruto pulled his hands from his sleeves and held them up but not above the blade of the sword just in case they had the idea of cutting his fingers off. He spoke at Ichigo once again who now had his sword at his stomach.

"I promise I won't cause you any trouble. Do what you may but I only want to learn." Naruto suddenly felt a collar click and tighten around his neck before he felt his body become weak and all of that power that was his to behold was gone from him. Naruto stumbled a little as if the world had rocked and he was trying to regain his footing. He looked around to find that everyone was putting away their swords.

He winced when the girl shouted the word 'Bakuto' or something that sounded like it and he couldn't move his arms or legs. He crumpled to his knees and frowned at the girl.

"These measures are not necessary. If I did not run before, why would I do so now especially with this thing around my neck." He tried to stand but could not with the binding on his body. He was ignored and the red head with a superfluous amount of tattoos picked him up and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

Naruto let out a small grunt at the impact of his stomach on the boys shoulder and flailed as much as he could with the range of movement he was given.

"Put me down _now_! This is humiliating!" The blond struggled for a bit but found it to be futile as his movement was highly constricted and didn't have very much of an effect on the man carrying him.

Naruto huffed and settled in, quickly becoming tired from the power drain and the struggle that he had put up. He was at least grateful that the pineapple was being considerate of the fact that the position he was in was very uncomfortable. He was lulled into a light nap by the slight bouncing of the others gait.

The blond man was put on the table in Urahara's lab and strapped down before all who were involved in capturing him stepped out to speak.

"Not exactly what I was expecting." Renji said while stretching.

"I think it was just because he was so easy to capture." Said Ichigo.

"Maybe."

Ichigo turned to the petite black haired woman "Hey Rukia, how did you even know he was the right guy? I couldn't even fee his spiritual pressure."

Rukia rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "You were _never _good at sensing spiritual pressure Ichigo but I'll give you a break since I couldn't feel it until Renji came either." Rukia unfolded her arms and looked at Ichigo. "Do you remember the first time we met?"

Ichigo remembered when the girl had stepped into his room like she owned the place and proceeded to give him an explanation of what she was as well as torturing him with really shitty diagrams. Then the Hollow came. "Yeah."

"That night, I couldn't feel the Hollow at all until it was attacking your sisters since your spiritual pressure was so overwhelming." She looked to both of them, her voice lowering slightly as if the gravity of the situation was actually dragging down her tone and volume. "That's what just happened."

Renji looked a little confused so she began to explain. "We were standing right in front of him and we couldn't sense a thing. Not one single thing. It lulled us into a calm when it should have set off our warning bells. I realized what was going on when Renji had showed up. This man's power dwarfed everything around him, even us to each other. Renji as a lieutenant level soul reaper wasn't on the radar until he dropped down right in front of us. Do you guys understand?"

Renji was a bit disgruntled at the fact that he was so insignificant to this man but he got the gist. He was about to say something when Byakuya who had heard the whole thing from his little space by the wall spoke up.

"It means that if he wanted to, he had every chance to get away before you put the collar on him."

Ichigo looked to Renji. "Where did you even get the collar?" Renji nodded to his captain.

"Did you think I pulled it out of my ass? Why do you think I was late to patrol?" Rukia and Ichigo looked away innocently and Renji got all worked up about them thinking he was lazy and had ended up skipping patrol. They were interrupted by Byakuya.

"That is beside the point. Now what we need to do is inform the head captain and wait for orders. Kisuke also has to perform a routine check on him to make sure he wasn't effected by the Hogyoku and that there aren't any physical anomalies that we have to work with or around. Until then, I would just keep on your toes and continue working." He turned and walked down the corridor that led to the outer halls which connected the squads. He headed to his section and wrote down a report of the person who now rested in the science and research ward of the Seretei.

After he was finished, He called Renji to add some things about the capture to the report and to take it to the head captain's office.

Naruto lay on a bed with his whole body bound so his arms were down at his sides and his feet were spread a little. He lifted his head up to see where he was and put it back down when he saw that it wasn't anywhere familiar. He sighed and closed his eyes figuring that there was honestly nothing to do while he waited.

For the first time in an eternity he felt the first hints of fear creep up on him. He had never been restrained in such a way and he didn't know whether or not this fear stemmed from his past life or the fact that he has never been so helpless or quite so much at anyone's mercy as he was now. He wiggles his fingers and toes just to assure him that not all movement was taken from him and it was silly really but it was comforting that he had that least little bit. In Hueco Mundo if he ever learned anything, it was to appreciate what you had, no matter how little because no matter how little you have, you could always have nothing at all.

He sent out his hearing and listened for conversation but there was none and he couldn't feel anyone approaching so he decided to relax and meditate. He fooled himself for about an hour into thinking that he could relax in the situation that he was in but he eventually had to give it up and just study the patterns that his eyes were starting to see on the blank ceiling.

After a little while, Naruto had almost drifted to sleep once again before the door to whatever room he was in slammed open and in walked a man with a white and green hat. He had a cane and a pair of wooden sandals on. He studied the smiling man and was reminded of silver hair and a mask.

"What are you going to do?" He asked, his face hardened as if he expected the worst.

"Oh calm down. I'm not here to torture you. You could even think of this as a check-up. I need some information on your physical wellbeing as well as some things that I require for purely selfish motives. Research and so on. I wouldn't want to bore you with the details. Now if you could strip? Oh! Silly me! I forgot that you were tied to my lovely operating table. Now, I'm going to undo the straps but you are not to run." He said the last sentence not as a question but as a statement.

He undid the straps and Naruto rotated his shoulders as soon as he could sit up, his joints a little stiff from sitting in the same position for so long. This man stood him up and took measurements, weight height and a couple of other things before he asked some questions. Then they moved onto the more intimate inspections that included a lot of beeping and whirring machines. He sat quietly through the whole thing and made small talk when the other attempted to have a civilized conversation with him.

The blond man asked about his past which he tried to remember but at the moment he was only able to remember the days leading up to and including the day he died. The memories come and go from day to day. He saw a few people come into the room and discus some things using words he didn't understand, making it seem like they were speaking in a completely different language.

"Naruto. Do you remember anything but your name?" Naruto stared at the man. He could lie. He could tell them no; spare them all the sordid details of his humiliating demise. He could start over, no one knowing who he was or why he got there. There was that one bright ray saying that he didn't have to tell. In the end though, he knew it was futile. If he was to help these people to help himself, he was going to have to be entirely truthful about what had happened on his death day.

"I know how I died. But I can't remember much else right now, ask me tomorrow and I may say something completely different." His current 'doctor' nodded and took out a pen.

"Then I want to know what you do with as much detail as you can." Naruto looked at the man with a glare.

"You do realize that you have no idea if I was brutally murdered and you are making me drudge up these memories not only for my personal reliving of them but for someone else to hear as well?" He was a little taken aback at the extent of invasion of his personal information to the extent at which they were asking him to reveal but he also was just hoping to put off the inevitable for a little bit longer.

At this point his set of memories changed from day to day but he felt like if he took the time now to relay his memories as they came, instead of fading, they would stick with him as they did when they had actually happened. He had felt the despair and hate. He heard vulgar words and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to remember.

Naruto saw the others expression turn to shock. "Well this is most interesting." He wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed Naruto a piece of fabric.

"What… why are you giving me this?" Naruto was slightly confused at the supposed kind albeit odd gesture. Maybe it was a custom of some sort?

The man stopped writing and motioned to his face, looking at him as if he was dim. "To wipe your eyes." Naruto reached up with his hand and touched his face to find it wet. There was a constant ache in his chest since he first started this existence but now he could tell it had increased quite a bit. He looked up to the man who had paused to watch Naruto with a burning curiosity.

"I don't want to remember…" He closed his eyes and clutched his head, the images of people beating him and raping him were burning themselves onto the inside of his eye lids. A hand reached out and touched his hunched figure.

"We can do it another way but it would still cause you to remember, though we will see it instead of hear it and you will be unconscious when it happens." Naruto slowly sat up straighter and used his own sleeve to wipe the tears from his eyes. His face was in his default neutral expression as he nodded.

"I wouldn't mind."

"Well then we would have to get set up. My name is Urahara Kisuke by the way." Urahara left the room and spoke with someone just outside the door before peaking his head in. "I'll be right back." He then left.

Naruto looked down at his hands and blinked when the other had left before tying him up again. He figured that if there was any time to prove his innocence it was now. He sat and waited and soon an hour flew by before the kid named Ichigo came in and took him by his upper arm rather roughly, dragging him to their destination.

They arrived and stepped into the room. All of the captains that had survived the war stood there as well as the lieutenants. There were some new faces among them as captains but all in all, familiar faces all around as he led their prisoner into the room.

Naruto was guided roughly to a chair that was reclined quite a bit and sat down in it. He looked around him and saw he was highly outnumbered even though he wasn't planning on getting away. Some of them were quite intimidating but he couldn't fathom as to why his gruesome past was of any relevance to most of the people here.

"If I am going to be the entertainment of this little party of yours, I want nothing to do with it." He said looking at the Urahara character he was talking to earlier.

"Trust me, Naruto, this is pertinent information that would have been shared anyway. I wouldn't be able to give you all you want to know, alone and this may decide what we do with you from here on out so all of the important people have to be here." He said and flipped out a fan type thing, putting it in front of his mouth.

Naruto glared. "Stop talking to me as if I were a child." He leaned back in the chair resigning himself to his fate.

He took a deep breath and felt hands on his head. The next moment put him under.

Kisuke hooked up the machines to his head and turned on a machine. Suddenly, pictures played along on the screen and they waited until the pictures became clearer and it abruptly slowed, as if showing them something that was filmed. This was already a bad thing. The fact that this creature knew such insignificant details meant that it was ingrained in his mind. They watched the boy who looked much younger walk down the street since the memory was oddly from a third person point of view.

They saw differences in the boy that lay on the table and the one that walked with fear and confidence. He saw the boy waver in a way they knew the kid would never do now and it was odd thinking that these were the same people. Since the blond said he could remember some things, they had assumed that he was rather young, yet powerful but they were beginning to realize that wasn't the case.

The day ended and they were in a house. Things were destroyed and they heard sobbing only to realize it was the boy. It was strange though. They heard an echo only to see that the boy on the table was currently crying on the table. Urahara felt a sense of dread fill him and put a hand on the head captains shoulder. "Maybe we should stop." But his suggestion went unheard as they saw the boy suddenly move to the bathroom and heard a commotion.

Someone found Naruto and dragged him out to the crowd of people that now stood in his home. They heard the speech the woman gave and were absolutely appalled. They looked at each other with horror stricken faces when they saw the boy being beaten and some had to step out as the memory progressed later in the night.

Urahara had to stay through all of it since it was his job to write down all the information they saw in the room that day and he regretted pushing the boy. He had never heard of a crying Hollow and that should have been the first warning but he didn't even consider this. They began hearing his thoughts and some of the women were staving off tears for this stranger.

The next morning in the memory came and they covered their ears for the first couple of minute's for all the screaming that went on, most of it being Naruto's. The memory skipped, they assumed he had been unconscious so the next thing they saw was the face of a blond busty woman that were just as big as Rangiku's. The women were failing as they saw this woman apologize and comfort the boy and the boy's words made their chest ache. The blond woman left and it was quiet for a minute before a group of people were sent into the room where the boy had been waiting.

They listened to the boy's final words and when everything went black, there was a moment of silence before a soft, soothing, broken voice spoke.

"Goodbye, Naruto. My brother."

The memory went black and the machine stopped whirring when someone turned it off, the room being full of soft sobs when the blond in question came to.

Naruto avoided the looks on the woman's faces and the men's faces that were tinted green. He was unhooked from a machine he didn't remember being hooked up to in the first place and was gently pulled to his destination this time. He felt drained of what little emotion he had left for the day. It was slightly odd since the man wasn't saying anything but he did feel a weird vibe coming from him, as if he might be tip toeing over egg shells. He watched him write a few things down and move a couple objects, seeming to be cleaning up for the day before he was lead to a different place that was just a room with a futon on some tatami mats.

"This door will be sealed throughout the night but the door over their leads to my room and all you have to do is knock if you need something." Urahara turned around and paused when he got to the door. He sighed and put his arms in his sleeves to refrain from doing something so childish as to rub the back of his neck or fiddle with his hand in a nervous gesture.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly and closed the door.

**A/N: I just want to take this space to say thank you to all the people who have read this story so far and a special thank you to thos of you who have followed and favorited it. This chapter came out rather quick because inspiration is flowing like crazy and I am falling in love with it every time I sit down to write. Please follow this story if you are interested in it because updates are going to be coming rapid fire inthe next month and i don't want you missing it! Please review and tell me how I'm doing. What I'm doing right and wrong and everthing between because I cherish your opinion! **

**SELF PROMOTION: I have another story called Noble Souls that I am working on so if you enjoy my work, please check it out though those updates will be coming slower than this one. Thank you!**


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